Jodhpur: In yet another indicator of the insensitive attitude of the Rajasthan government, no action has been taken against those responsible for leaving unattended a 70-year-old paralysed man on ventilator in the intensive care unit (ICU), who was found to be nibbled by rats.

The old man is admitted in Mathura Das Mathur Hospital here was said to be attacked by rats who nibbled on his ears, nose, lips and cheeks while hospital staff slept.
"The hospital staff - from doctors to security guards - go to sleep before 11 pm, leaving the patients on their own," a doctor in the hospital said on condition of anonymity.

Sources at the hospital said authorities had closed the hole through which the rats were coming into the ICU rooms. Rat killer medicines also have been used.

The government run hospital has been under the scanner for unhygienic conditions for months now and the rat menace in government hospitals in Jodhpur is not new. In 2009, an infant died allegedly after some rats attacked him soon after birth at the Ummed Hospital here.